― "𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐲, 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐞?" ―
time passed quickly in the domain, it almost felt unreal. my grip on my sword was tight as i approached the mitachurl who was struggling to stand. it roared loudly as soon as it noticed the distance between us decreasing.
my right shoulder throbbed with pain, right where the mitachurl managed to land a hit. the geo shield it carried had been broken a while ago, pieces of it thrown off to the side.
i rolled it slightly, building up my strength for the final blow. end them quickly,' jean had said. i needed to move on. with a deep breath, i braced myself for the final blow. i surged forward with a sudden burst of force, my blade raised above my head. although it attempted to counter, i was too swift for him. i turned around it with a smooth movement, my blade slicing through the air as i delivered a strong blow to its side.
knowing it was finally dead, i dashed to the next part of the domain. we had split into separate groups, one to help the wounded stuck in the bubble, one to fend off the enemies in the domain and one to search for a way out. much to our dismay, the door we came through closed in on itself. it was unusual, but there was no time to ponder about it.
in the distance, i caught sight of some knights and jean already where the wounded were. it seemed to be some sort of gated room. i travelled in that direction, climbing up the ladders and navigating through the walls that resembled a maze.
in the room to my right, i heard a loud curse and sounds of fighting. i rushed in to help and was surprised to see rosaria. from our last encounter, she was helping to find an exit. judging from the bodies on the ground, it seemed there were maybe 3-4 mages in the room, now down to just one left.
i deduced that in the midst of fighting the abyss mage, her polearm must have been smacked out of her hands. the abyss mage took the opportunity to teleport in between her and the weapon.
"rosaria! are you okay?"
she looked up. "i'm fine. don't worry about me." it seemed like she wanted to fight this herself, but the gashing wound on her arm told me i would be insane to leave her in this situation.
"hey!" i touched the tip of my sword on the floor, catching the attention of the enemy. it fell for my trap, immediately teleporting in front of me. in that split second, i kicked rosaria's polearm to her, then crouching down to slide under the mage.
i infused electro into my sword. at the same time, rosaria pointed her cryo-infused polearm in our direction and ran. we swung our weapons simultaneously and landed a powerful strike on the abyss mage. it let out a noise that resembled a scream and fell to the ground.
"thank you,"
a woman of a few words.
i shook my head, "i didn't do anything."
"we should hurry. it seems they have all regathered." rosaria pointed up. she explained that the floating platform was connected to the corridor we were standing in. the two of us immediately made our way to the ladder at the far end.
___
sometimes, i wish i could turn back time.
perhaps i could relive my 8th birthday party where i was surprised with that huge cake i liked.
perhaps i could've ordered another serving of almond tofu.
perhaps i could witness my first ever fireworks show again.
and perhaps, i would not be stuck in this pit, with no way out, no light, no chance to call for help, with the most insufferable person i have ever met.
"now... what should we do about this situation?"
i glared at kaeya, who had chosen to sit down at a corner of the room. "what are you doing? find a way to get out of here."
...how did we end up like this, you may ask?
when rosaria and i reached the prisoners, the rest joined us shortly after.
"we are unable to find any potential exits, acting grandmaster." a knight sighed, scratching his head.
jean frowned and crossed her arms. "let's look again around this room. ysabelle, rosaria, did you two hold up okay?" she gestured to us.
behind her, i caught sight of the knights who were previously stuck in the barrier. a couple of them stood next to some sort of mechanism, which seemed to have been destroyed. some light continued to glow through the cracks, similar to how the gate looked. the wounded knights were tended to by some of the others and i was relieved to see that they were all conscious, though still looking extremely weak.
i nodded. "the abyssal energy is growing stronger, especially in this room."
lisa and amber gathered next to us. thank goodness, they did not look injured.
"any updates?"
amber shook her head, "we will continue to investigate the mechanism. maybe something will appear."
as amber spoke, i glanced around and noticed someone missing. lisa noticed and smiled at me, "kaeya is over there." she pointed to the side.
i let out a small scoff and shook my head, mumbling, "i wasn't looking for him."
lisa only hummed in response.
after a few seconds, i looked over and surely enough, kaeya was standing with 2 knights, arms crossed. behind him was a huge concrete wall with a few cracks here and there. kaeya suddenly looked up, locking eyes with me.
i immediately turned away, cursing myself. i already know the bastard probably thought i was staring at him.
all of a sudden, the medics attending to the knights screamed. he held up his comrade's hand, which was previously covered by a glove. "his, his hands! they're turning blue?!"
we were all immediately alarmed and rushed over. amber took the knight's hand and inspected it closely. jean took off his other glove, and surely enough it was the same. she cursed under her breath, "it seems to be the effect of the abyssal energy. we have to find a way out. quickly."
the knight who was sat leaning his back against the wall looked half-conscious. his eyelids were drooped low and his breaths were slow. jean barked out commands and the knights quickly went to work.
"our only hope seems to that wall over there." kaeya popped up behind me and i nearly jumped in surprise. he smiled at the effect of his actions and i glared in response.
"what wall? the one with the drill?" i pointed to where he stood earlier. a small drill-like object was situated in the middle of the wall. it vibrated steadily and debris dropped onto the ground as it continued.
"yeah, you know, the wall you were staring at earlier."
"the fuck? i wasn't staring at the wall."
"my my, so you admit you were staring at me?" his eyes twinkled teasingly.
"i was staring at the wall." i concluded, ignoring his laughter that followed my words. i went over the wall to inspect it closer. while my finger traced the cracks, kaeya had followed and also knelt beside me.
"huffman used a detector and the energy we detected back at the entrance is similar to the one we suspect is behind this wall."
i continued to trace the crack. one in particular was larger than the others, and if you squint, you might be able to see something inside it. "but you can't break this entire wall down. the platform will collapse."
he nodded, "correct. that's why we're going to try to make a small opening. but before that, we need to make sure our suspicions are correct."
"was there always something glowing like that?" i had one eye closed while the other squinted to look in between the cracks.
"what do you mean?"
i moved my head back, gesturing to where my finger was. "look for yourself."
there was a tiny red glow in the rock, a few centimetres past the opening. "that's unusual. abyssal energy should be blue." he leaned back and turned to me. his eyes casted to the side of my head. "wait, your earring is glowing to-,"
in the next second, the wall started to rumble uncontrollably. "shit." i took a few steps back, placing my hand on my sword handle. the drill fell out onto the floor with a loud thud and soon enough the entire wall crumbled to pieces in front of our eyes.
"wait, the gate! that's the exit!" someone exclaimed from the back.
"fuck, wait, there's something appearing! GET BACK! GET BACK!"